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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects Expressions Stroke – Offset time expression for multiple masks in a single layer

  • Stroke – Offset time expression for multiple masks in a single layer

    Posted by Diegooriani on December 2, 2013 at 3:07 pm

    Hi guys,

    Does anyone knows a simple expression for offsetting the time for multiple Masks when using the Stroke effect?

    The project has a layer with multiple masks. These ‘Start’ and ‘End’ at the same time when applying the Stroke effect. I am looking for a simple expression that will allow me to offset the time between these mask to create a more organic look-and-feel.

    Thank you in advance.

    Kevin Camp replied 12 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Kevin Camp

    December 3, 2013 at 9:48 pm

    you would need to use multiple stroke effects on the same layer, each set to use different mask (rather than stroke all masks).

    you could then use expressions to link the start and/or end properties of each stroke instance to a single instance:

    target = effect(“Stroke”)(“End”);
    offset = .2; // value in seconds
    target.valueAtTime(time-offset)

    Kevin Camp
    Senior Designer
    KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

  • Diegooriani

    December 4, 2013 at 11:56 am

    Thank you for the reply. Sadly the solution is not viable on my case. There are 1979 small lines in this layer. Is not efficient to apply the effect to each one of them. I wonder if there is a way to do that by creating a expression that targets the mask 1 to mask 1979.

    Does anyone has another solution? Is it possible to create a loop that targets all the masks without copying the style to each one of then?

    Thank you in advance.

  • Kevin Camp

    December 4, 2013 at 7:20 pm

    i don’t think there’s a way to do that…

    what i’d do is pick out a few paths that i wanted to start the animation with and cut/paste them onto new layers and start those animating in first.

    i’d do the same for a few paths that i wanted to end the animation with.

    then i’d probably separate the rest onto a few different layers and then try to animate those in using stroke ‘all masks’ and maybe ‘stroke sequentially’

    with the start/end point animations staggered over several layers, i think you’ll start to get something that will be organic and manageable.

    Kevin Camp
    Senior Designer
    KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

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